The demand for virtual assistants is growing at a steady pace. Plus, you can choose your own hours and work with the clients of your choosing.

But finding your first job isn’t as simple as submitting a resume. You must know the right sites to find virtual assistant jobs, and the best practices for applying for that job.

Here are the 7 best sites to find virtual assistant jobs when you have no experience. Plus, tips to getting hired on each particular site.

What Is A Virtual Assistant?

There is no one overall, comprehensive definition when it comes to a virtual assistant’s job description. Virtual assistants can have basic skills or they can be highly specialized. Because of this, the pay rate can also vary widely. If you have unique skills and provide value to your client, your hourly wage can be quite high.

A good virtual assistant will serve as support for their boss, taking tasks off their plate. That support might be in the form of administrative, technical, or creative duties. You’ll provide these services online instead of heading into a brick-and-mortar office each day – that’s where the virtual part comes in.

Because there is no solid job description, this position can be anything you make it.

Don’t limit yourself. Feel free to think outside the box and stand out from the crowd. That could be the difference between making a decent living and a great one with a legit online job.

Requirements to Become a Virtual Assistant

The beauty of being a virtual assistant is that there are no hard, set requirements. Every virtual assistant job possibility you find might have different requirements listed.

But there are some overall skills that make for a great virtual assistant. Those include strong communication skills, reliability, resourcefulness, efficiency, and motivation to do your work quickly and well.

You should also be able to work independently without asking too many questions. You don’t want to create more work for your employers than you are taking off their plate. That kind of defeats the purpose of having a virtual assistant.

7 Websites To Find Virtual Assistant Jobs

FlexJobs screens every job listing to make sure it is legitimate. And there are plenty of jobs listed – more than 30,000.

FlexJobs isn’t a free site though. You will pay a low fee each month to use the service. But because they offer higher quality candidates, it’s worth the fee.

You can see what kinds of jobs they offer before you pay anything though. That sneak peek will help determine whether you want to sign up. If you sign up and aren’t happy, you can cancel at any time.

Tips for Getting Hired On FlexJobs

Remember when applying for jobs like this that fortune favors the bold. Don’t be afraid to apply for virtual assistant jobs where you don’t have all the requirements listed. Put your name out there and see what happens.

Instead of sending out a standard submission for each job you want, spend more time on each one. If you craft a killer job submission, you have a much better chance of getting hired. Yes, you won’t be able to send out as many job inquiries because they’ll take extra time, but you’ll land a higher percentage of the ones you send out.

Upwork can be highly competitive, but on the upside, there are a ton of jobs posted daily. The work is out there, whether you’re looking for a full-time gig or just to make extra income.

It ranges from low paying to higher paying jobs, so you have to be choosy. There are plenty of non-phone jobs if you don’t want to spend a lot of your time doing that.

Keep in mind when you’re applying, if you’re a U.S. resident, you’d be better off trying to land clients who are based in this country.

They tend to pay a decent wage compared to some of the overseas clients. Upwork has a filter to make this search a lot easier for you. You can set the filter to U.S. clients only and it will save you time and frustration on your job search.

Tips for Getting Hired On Upwork

Quality of quantity. You have to stand out in the crowd because there are so many freelancers on this site.

Take a unique angle. Look at your hobbies, not just your work experience and skills, when you’re looking for a virtual assistant job here. Sometimes your hobbies might give you the edge. If your potential client owns a metal detecting company, for instance, it might help you land that virtual assistant job if he knew you dabbled with detecting in the past.

Build your profile. The key to going up the food chain on this site is to take some lower paying jobs and doing them well enough to get good reviews and feedback. This will lead to a high Job Success Score, which gives potential clients more confidence in your abilities. That will lead to higher paying work. I wouldn’t do this for too long – just enough to get a couple of positive reviews and then you can start charging more for your services.

Record a video proposal. Record a video of your proposal and post it on YouTube, then share the link. This is something you can do for every job site here, and it has worked well on Upwork for me. It shows you’re willing to take an extra step and it will get you noticed.

Toptal is another big freelancing platform aimed at linking businesses with the talent they need. Some of the talent pool looking for work here includes software engineers, designers, and consultants, as well as duties virtual assistants can offer.

Tips for Getting Hired On Toptal

You need to apply, and the site can be fairly choosy about the candidates they accept. But that’s a good thing! It shows to your potential bosses that you’re qualified for what they throw your way.

Don’t worry about calling yourself a virtual assistant on this site. Instead, apply with your greatest skill. If you have a niche, showcase it. Look at the competitors and see what skills you have that aren’t listed as much. Maybe you have SEO proofreading or software experience.

Learn new skills as you see what is most marketable on this site. Invest in yourself – it will pay off.

Before you rule this one out, give it a chance. Yes, you can find virtual assistant work on the same site you’d use to sell your old workout equipment you no longer need. Craigslist can get a bit of a bad rap, but if you’re careful, you can find quality work here.

Tips for Getting Hired On Craigslist

This site can showcase a lot of local entrepreneurs who are looking to hire assistants. And yes, you can still work from home with many of these. Others might have you running errands, which might be a good possibility for an online job for college students. Stay open to the possibilities and see what works for you.

Watch out for scams because they seem to plague Craigslist more than other sites. Watch out for broken English or poorly written posts. And stay away from people who say they need to meet with you right away.

Indeed is a massive job site which lets workers search for jobs for free and post their resumes. This site gets a lot of traffic, with 250 million unique monthly visitors.

Tips for Getting Hired On Indeed

The best thing about Indeed is the supply. There are so many jobs. With a little creativity, you’re bound to find work.

Don’t search for just virtual assistant jobs. Use different keyword combinations, based on your skills, so you’re not looking at the same jobs as everyone else. You know what everyone who wants to be a virtual assistant will search for? Virtual assistant jobs. But not every potential client will list their work that way. So search in a variety of ways to uncover the most work.

Set up alerts, and then submit a customized proposal. Make sure it doesn’t read like a form letter. Highlight what kind of solutions you can offer the potential client.

This site allows you to sell your services, including virtual assistant work, to customers throughout the world.

When considering virtual assistant platforms, you might initially shy away from this one because it has a reputation for its listing of $5 jobs. That won’t get you a solid hourly fee if the jobs take much time at all. But $5 per gig is the rate the platform’s jobs begin at – you can charge higher than that per gig if you wish to.

I wouldn’t use Fiverr as the only online platform I’d tap, but it does give you one more avenue to try.

Tips for Getting Hired On Fiverr

Fiverr is a large job platform, but it’s also highly competitive.

To get hired for a job, which they call gigs, you need to focus on:

Offering a quick turnaround for the jobs you’re pitching.

Getting some good reviews under your belt. That may mean performing your first few jobs at a lower rate. It may not seem like it’s worth your time to do so, but if it leads to higher paying jobs down the road, it definitely is.

Finding a way to stand out from the crowd, whether that’s with a fun and creative video or by showcasing your unique skills.

How To Increase Your Chances Of Getting A High-Paying Virtual Assistant Job

Tip # 1 – Increase Your Value

It’s great to have a few marketable skills to initially land you some virtual assistant jobs. But you shouldn’t stop there if you want to grow your income and your business.

Invest in yourself by taking classes or teaching yourself some highly-marketable skills that will bring in more money. You can brush up on your software skills or earn a certification that will show your clients you’re worth extra money.

You can also ask your employer to provide virtual assistant training. If you learn just one new thing from each of your clients, you’ll expand your knowledge base and your business.

Tip # 2 – Don’t Be a Virtual Assistant

Don’t just limit your search to virtual assistant work. It can be very competitive and you could be missing out on some great opportunities.

Instead, find the skill you have that pays the most and find a job which can utilize that skill. Don’t put yourself in a box. Branch out. Then let your new employer know you can handle other tasks.

As you bank more virtual assistant jobs, be thinking about ways to add value for your clients by expanding your skill set and finding what you can offer that not everybody can. Anyone can call themselves a virtual assistant, but if you can say with confidence you’re a SEO expert or a communications whiz, you’ll open more doors.

And you’ll earn bigger paychecks because of your specialization.

Tip # 3 – Specialize In 2-3 Skills

It’s good to be a Jack of all trades. But it’s better to have skills fewer people do.

If you can target highly sought-after skills that pay well and focus on two or three of those, you’re going to take your career to the next level.

Here’s why specialization is important, i.e., data entry jobs, have a limit. You can only earn so much with these jobs that can be easily outsourced overseas.

But other skills such as social media management can pay very well.

By specializing in high-paying skills, you’ll earn more money for less work, which will give you a life-work balance that might be attractive to you.

About The Author

R.J. Weiss is the founder and editor of The Ways To Wealth, a Certified Financial Planner™, husband and father of three. He's spent the last 10+ years writing about personal finance and has been featured in Forbes, Bloomberg, MSN Money, and other publications.

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